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As humans, we鈥檙e drawn to the big questions: How does the universe work? What secrets does our planet hold? Even - why are we here? But these mysteries span billions of years - vast stretches of time that dwarf our short human lives.

So how can we understand timeless ideas with such limited time ourselves? And why ask a question when you know you鈥檙e not going to live to see the answer?

Caroline Steel meets a group of people who spend their lives in two time zones. One, the normal heartbeat of humanity. The other, closer to eternity.

We meet Charles Cockell, an astrobiologist who spends a lot of time thinking about life on other planets. But his most exciting experiment lives in a wooden box under his desk. It鈥檚 an experiment that will be bequeathed to future scientists, with a finish date in 2514. It鈥檒l help those scientists make observations that would not be possible in a single lifetime, but even that鈥檚 not long enough for Charles. He has plans for an experiment that will continue for a billion years.

In Michigan, USA we meet Grace Fleming and a group of plant biologists tramping through snow under the cover of darkness, following a treasure map that was left for them 140 years ago. They鈥檙e looking for a bottle of seeds that was buried by a 19th century scientist who knew he鈥檇 never get to see the results, which continue to be surprising and exciting today.

And in Queensland, Australia we meet Andrew White, a quantum physicist who found himself in charge of a century old experiment that tells us something visceral and fundamental about the nature of deep time.

These are the future seekers - humans of the past and present attempting to transcend the limitations of their own lifetimes.

Presenter: Caroline Steel
Producer: Ben Motley